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Gap grows but do Arsenal have MORE reason to believe?

Of course it would have been the target for Arsenal to come back from White Hart Lane with all three points and after a great start and taking the lead against Tottenham in the north London derby then there are bound to be some regrets, especially from the defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin who admitted that his rash tackle on Kane probably cost us the win.

And the failure to win was then punished to the full by Leicester City who managed another narrow victory and opened up an eight point gap on the Gunners. But despite that, Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players seem to have gained some belief back that we can defy the odds, finish the season strongly and catch Claudio Ranieri and the Foxes.

After the derby our opening goal scorer Aaron Ramsey was proud of the spirit that Arsenal showed and if suggest in comments on the Arsenal website that if we can carry on from that and if he and our other scorer Alexis Sanchez can keep finding the net then anything can happen in the coming weeks and months.

The Welshman said, “I think we needed a performance like that after the couple of defeats that we’ve had. We needed to come here and get something and we managed to do that with 10 men.

“Of course, it is always difficult, especially against a top team like them, but we did show great character to come back from 2-1 down.

“Hopefully him [Alexis] and myself can chip in with a few more goals towards the end of the season and finish off strongly. We’ll keep giving everything until the final game of the season is over.

“I think we needed a result here today. We would have liked to have won the game but it was important just to get a result. We’ve had two defeats, so we’re happy to come away with a point in the end, considering the circumstances.”

I know that a lot of Arsenal fans feel that a draw was not enough and that the players should not be happy with it, but if it has restored their confidence and belief after a bad run then that could be massive. The attitude of the players has been under question recently and that was alluded to by the on pitch captain Per Mertesacker, as Metro reports.

The German said, “For a team with low confidence and no belief we played pretty well!

“I think we have shown great character and hopefully that gives us a lot of confidence and a lot of belief. I think we’ve shown a lot.

‘With 11 men, we played really well. I think we defended well. It was a high tempo. The first 15 minutes were absolutely amazing. I have never played in such a demanding game physically.

“Mentally, it’s always tough because you could feel the pressure but the team responded well and I think it’s a good start to an interesting end of the season.”

And Arsene Wenger was bullish today in the press conference ahead of the FA cup replay at Hull, reported by The Mirror, refusing to accept that there is too much to do and insisting that the Gunners will do all they can to win the title.

The boss said, “You don’t think like that. The Premier League is far from being over. Just to remind you, we have beaten Leicester twice so we have done our job against them.

“People have to look at other teams more, not just us on that front. We will not give up the Premier League, we will fight until the end.”

So if the battling draw against the spuds really has given Arsenal their belief back, will it prove to be a vital point in the EPL title race?

25 thoughts on “Gap grows but do Arsenal have MORE reason to believe?”

It all starts back in the summer, when we didn’t do our homework, even so though we still had a chance, and we are blowing it and one man has to take responsibility and pay for his lack of actions. It’s easy to say on the microphone we are trying, but I don’t see enough on the pitch. It’ll be another scrap battle for 3rd or 4th

Failute to address the more recent problem of playing an hapless midfielder in CM .
wenger should have reacted after 3 games of playing ramsay in the midfield .
Stats show that ramsey is the player most dribbled past in the league .
It has never worked with either ramsay or wilshere because they lack the know -how of being the brain of the team .

We have won one game in eight, only Aston Villa shares the same form. How we will suddenly win eight games straight and Leicester lose three games is beyond me. We have been in relegation form since the 3-3 draw with Liverpool. You can’t win the title losing and drawing so many games.

Just imagine we have a world class striker and another midfielder in the caliber of Cazorla … Just imagine we haven’t a stubborn manager, another board that really care about Arsenal and not the money … We’d have won the 2012-13 season and this season as well …

I’m really pleased we didn’t lose v Spurs, but Spurs’ record of being able to finish off a season isn’t brilliant either. For everyone around us the draw was excellent, fortunately ManU are just as diabolical as we areat the moment, but Man City will leapfrog us if they win their game in hand. Liverpool are looking like the refs love them and West Ham are pretty good looking dark horses. We are looking at scraping 3rd or 4th again. Really is that what Arsenal should be about, and yes I know you’ll go on about crystal balls, but lets be realistic, does our form really warrent us being EPL champions?

easy to be resilient on the mic but they fail to show it on the pitch. you don’t have to be Messi but show that you are trying. that is all we want from the team but it s not happening. they are happy they drew with the spuds but what about the games where they looked disinterested in fighting and lost.

off topic……i would keep Rambo on the wing if i was wenger to avoid imbalance in midfield because this guys always leaves le coq alone and is not more interested in running forward.secondly he is not the type of player that can dictate play from the middle. he does however have a nack of getting in good positions to score goals i should say. so if he has to be in the starting line up he is better off on the wing or mayb, just mayb (never seen or remember him paying there) as a number 10. perhaps OG should learn a few runs from him.

ON topic…………………NO ARSENAL HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE. if you believe its only because you are hoping and cursing the two teams above us to loose 3 to 4 games and hoping the sale old arsenal will surprise you.

No, Arsenal have less reasons to believe because Leicester moved further away from us. In fact, the title is pretty much over given the gap. Leicester have nine games left, and have to drop points from at least three of the games for us to able to catch them. On top of that, we probably have to win eight, if not, all of our games. But I can’t seeing Leicester dropping too many points given their form, and even if they do, I can’t see Arsenal even stringing two wins together.

Realistically, Arsenal are now in a battle for Champions League football, and if we can’t win the league then I hope we miss out on the Champions League as well. Financially, it won’t hurt us given our huge cash reserves and the monstrous new TV deal coming in. It won’t hurt us in the transfer market, because apparently there’s been almost nothing on the market for the last three years. Finally, we never do anything in the competition anyway, so as fans we’re not missing out on anything. Not finishing in the top four might finally push the board into sacking Wenger or at least having him leave by mutual consent. Because for years now the Champions league as been the only goal for Wenger, it is deemed a successful season just scraping into the Champions League (just to take a pounding once we’re in it).

But the board WILL have to make a decision if we finish below fourth, because I imagine Wenger would still not leave. He’ll probably see it as a great challenge to get us back into the top four.

No matter the results Wenger will not leave. Finish 4th or 6th, he will stay to collect his £9 million a year.

The only way I could see him leave is if his ego got bruised by protesting fans and questioning media. I have noticed in the past that he, like most dictators, hates being questioned by the press or fans. He can get really angry by that. So a mass protest (which won’t happen) would likely see him quit because of his ego. Bad results alone are not going to get him to leave, after all he is master of explaining them away (the ref, the pitch, injuries, bully opponents, bad luck, fatigue, lack of winter break etc etc)

Don’t know why people go on about his wage because you are very misguided if you think he cannot get another one easily. The reason he sticks around is because he eats sleeps and breathes football, the reason it is with us is because all of his best memories are with us, and because he has a contract. If you think that is not true well then keep on believing it is the money for all I care. And anyone who thinks how can he (me) defend him in one comment but slaughter him in another. Easy I criticise him on points I think is fair, and I defend him on others, because unlike some, I don’t go round looking for excuses to have a pop.

Wenger’s plan from the beginning was a top 4 finish and not to win the league. He bluntly refused to buy any out field players which should have informed us of his and the board’s lack of ambition. Why are we surprised? Wenger is stubborn we all know that but he is also a coward. I saw this act of cowardice in the bournemouth game where we scored two goals in 23 minutes and he went defensive in the remaining 67 minutes. The Ramsey/Flimini or Ramsey\Coquelin combo has not been working since Cazorla’s injury and he was not astute enough to try other options sticking to the same formation week in, week out. It is the main reason we are where we are today and if he plays Ramsey in the middle again for the remaining fixtures then I tell you the spurs will be celebrating St. Arse Day for sure.

Spot on especially on the last part. We’ve seen Arsenal over the years beat almost anybody when they believe and are confident.

We’ve all seen far more unlikely scenarios work out in teams’ favor. This is the last stretch and honestly anyone in the top 5 still have a shot at the title. It’s easy to write off Arsenal with 9 games to go.